Review of Project Nim (2011) by Andrew C — 02 Aug 2011

My greatest passion in life is film. I love what film represents. It's infinite. We can go anywhere and do anything. It let's us see life from other perspectives. It's not just entertainment and escapism for me. It's about the experience itself.

Before I discovered my love of film in my early teens though, my passion was animals. I read every Zoobook. I went to the zoo 50 times a year. I craved knowledge. I was curious how they would act in certain situations. I wanted to see what life was like for them. I never saw them as "less than human." Just different.

Project Nim combines those two passions and when I saw it was playing locally, I jumped at the chance to see it. I was not let down.

Nim is the story of a science experiment. At the height of America's fascination with apes, a scientist, Herbert Terrace, wanted to test an ape's aptitude for actual language. And so a baby chimpanzee was given to a family with the job of raising him like a human child. Soon though, to save the project, Nim is taken to a mansion and living with teachers to give him some more structure and actual language testing. The film takes us past the experiment though. Project Nim is a sort of biography for Nim, told by his family, teachers, friends and owners.

James Marsh is a master of the documentary. Here, he pieces together the life of this chimp, but never says who's right and who's wrong. He hands us the information to form our own opinion. And what's more, the story becomes more complex and more enthralling as it goes along. It's not just fascinating. It's challenging, heart wrenching and, at times, incredibly funny. I found myself an emotional wreck at the end of the film.

Nim's story needs to be told and I'm so glad this film reached me. Being born in the 1980s, I had no prior knowledge of these experiments. Nim brings up difficult questions in many areas, including animal rights, nature vs nurture, scientific oversight and, last but not least, the ability of animals to form language and culture and have personalities not unlike humans. And I may even be deeper than that. Nim is truly depressed and affected by his treatment. And to be honest, I saw a little bit of myself and my co-workers in him. Nim's cage as our corporate prisons, of course.

The conclusions gained from these questions and suggestions are left up to the viewer, but I doubt anyone could truly watch this doc and say that Nim was just some dumb animal.

Beautifully told, fantastic subject matter. A brilliant film and probably my favorite documentary that I have ever seen.